Thermal management is of great importance to the operation of semiconductor devices. Thermal management is especially important in the operation of silicon microprocessors as relentlessly increasing frequency targets push power output, and therefore heat generation, to the limits of the cooling capacity of passive air-cooled heatsink technology. Insufficient transfer of heat away from a semiconductor device can result in degradation in performance and reliability of that device or circuit.
Recent focus has turned to thermal management arrangements utilizing fluid flowing through parallel microchannels to dissipate heat. The microchannels each have similar dimensions and each have an input to receive fluid from an inlet coupled to a remote pump, and an output to transmit the fluid through an outlet towards a heat exchanger. This design may result in a large portion of the fluid flowing through the microchannels in line with the inlet and the outlet and a much smaller portion of the fluid flowing through the microchannels at the periphery, which require the flow lines to bend significantly.